Make your own gifs for fun & Super effective marketing

Do you love GIFs? Do you share them on social media? Or, get a good chuckle when someone posts a hilarious GIF?
 
Of course, people who are into them are really into them (we all know that guy or gal who posts so many GIFs, it seems like the only way they communicate!)
 
Either way, GIFs are a fantastic and highly-effective way to promote your business.
 
For those of you who are scratching your head wondering what a GIF is, the best way to think of them are animated images, sort of like watching one of those old school flip books we used to make as kids. 
 
Except now, they’ve become the go-to format for sharing short, funny, and topical animated bits across social media. ​

Marketing your business with your own GIFs 
 
If you’re a Realtor, mortgage lender, or any small business owner, I’m encouraging you to make your own custom GIFs. (And I’ll help you do just that.)
 
You’ll find that producing your own GIFs is fun, easy, inexpensive, and a great way to instantly gain your audience’s attention online (the ultimate goal of any marketing).
 
Remember that if you’re competing against all other Realtors, loan officers, or small businesses in your niche online, everything that differentiates you and catches the eye is invaluable!
 
Think about it like this: a lot of your competitors are producing and posting images, some of the are making videos, a few of them are writing blogs and articles, but a scarce few are producing custom GIFS.

​What you need to know about GIFs
 
GIF, an acronym which means "Graphics Interchange Format," is a file format for visual content for the web, similar to JPEG or PNG.
 
It was first used by CompuServe in the 1987, and there have been only marginal improvements over the decades. In fact, GIFs are relatively low quality compared to other image formats, since they only use 256 colors, making them appear somewhat grainy and washed out. They also don’t have any sound. (Did you just realize that for the first time now?!)
 
But they have one huge advantage: GIFS support animation, unlike JPEGS and PNGs. 
They also are a very small file size compared to videos and they’re easy to share or post via the web, social media, PowerPoint, email, or even text. 

​Using GIFs for marketing your business
 
Not only will a personal GIF separate you from the competition, there are so many ideas for content you can produce, like:

• GIF displaying a new listing
• Open House/Just Sold GIF
• GIF showing happy and thankful buyers, sellers, or loan clients 
• Dynamic testimonials, announcements, product updates, etc.
• Holiday GIFs
• Promoting an event
• Thank You’s
• A great “calling card” GIF of you jumping or dancing or waving one of your signs, etc.
• GIFs featuring your referral partners or trusted advisors

 
So, basically you can make a GIF about anything.
 
But I also encourage you not to over-use them, as a little GIF goes a long way!
 
GIFs with your branding
Of course, these GIFS can also contain your image, logo, brand, website or email, or any other contact info you’d like.
 
Hell, even the California Association of Realtors got on board with GIFs recently, creating 24 unique and fun real estate lifestyle GIFs for Android or IOS that any Realtor or lender can relate to!
 
https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2019/07/29/send-a-funny-real-estate-gif
 
“GIFs allow REALTORS® to express themselves with their clients in a way that a regular emoji can’t,” said Jared Martin, CAR President. “Like the excitement of closing day.” 

​ Where you can share your new GIFs
 
Not only can you use your new custom GIFs on your social media platforms, on your website, in email newsletters or text messaging campaigns, but I particularly love them as email signatures that offer some movement, color, and instantly become conversation pieces.
 
You can even upload your GIF to Giphy.com or another free GIF site and allow others to use them. Hey, that’s free promotion for you!
 
But how do you even pronounce “GIF”?!
 
OK, now to answer the centuries-old question: how do you pronounce “GIF?”
 
Some people say it with a hard ‘G’ like in “Gift,” while others say “Jiff.” 
 
Going right to the source and original creator of GIFs, Steve Wilhite, we find out that the correct way to say it is actually “Jiff” – like Jiffy peanut butter. Then again, so many people say “Gif” with a hard G that both are acceptable. 
 
Are you interested in having some of your own custom GIFs made? Jut hit me up!
 
Your friend,
Norm  :-)